June 28 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Your Call Is Very Important.” Sponsored by West Healthcare Practice. Presenters: Cyndy Orrys, contact center director, Henry Ford Health System; Brian Cooper, SVP, West Interactive. The contact center is a key hub of patient engagement and a strategic lever for driving competitive advantage. Cyndy will share how her organization’s call center is using technologies and approaches that create effortless patient experiences in connecting them to the right information or resource. Brian will describe five key characteristics of a modern call center and suggest how to get started.

The Diary develops a CareKit-based chronic condition management app featuring care plan and prescription reminders; as well as the ability to dictate and share symptoms and vitals. The company plans to launch a corresponding data-sharing app for providers in the near future.

DirectTrust develops the Partnership for Patients Program, giving members secure-messaging access to its network of 58,000 healthcare organizations and 1.2 million email addresses.

Government and Politics

Marin County, CA officials authorize the use of nearly $775,000 to build a data hub that will connect Marin Community Clinics, Coastal Health Alliance, Marin City Health and Wellness Center, Ritter Center, the county’s health clinics — including behavioral health — and Emergency Medical Services, all of which operate separate EHRs. County supervisors hope that the hub, which will take two years to build, will eventually connect to local hospitals.

ONC’s annual meeting kicks off with a half day of sessions, including a tête-à-tête between HHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Health and National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD and former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who wasn’t afraid to drop a little humor into their conversation about consumer-friendly health data.

Research and Innovation

MGMA’s annual compensation survey finds that annual PCP salaries now surpass $250,000, a 4.3 percent rise from 2014 that the association attributes to the increasing prevalence of value-based care models. PCP salaries have increased 18 percent over the last five years and still lag far below that of their specialist counterparts, who earned an average $425,509 in 2015.